The year is 1926 and Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

First, I’ll start by the usual disclaimer that I have not read any of the Harry Potter books, but, am a fan of the movies. With that being said… Today, I saw “Fantastic Beasts: And where to find them”

I liked it. I found this story fits in with the, already established, Harry Potter universe and has a few tie-ins to the original movies. The primary characters were well acted, and the special effects – of which the movie relied on HEAVILY – were excellent. I really only had issue with the term “No-Maj” to describe non-magical people (aka Muggles) – it’s an unimaginative term, and really kind of stupid.

One of the things that I pointed out to my wife, as we returned to the car, was that I liked how they actually used some American mythical creatures in this story. For example, a very large bird who summons storms and is native to Arizona.. what the Native Americans called the Thunderbird. Also, the giant, winged, serpents that were taken from ancient Aztec lore (Quetzalcoatl). The rest of the Beasts seemed to be made up for the story.. or at least, I didn’t recognize any of them.

This is a good addition to the Harry Potter film collection. Great for the kids.